OLDEST MAORI WAR CANOE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1731, 23 April 1913, Page 6

OLDEST MAORI WAR CANOE.

SAW BATTLE IN 1825. (Dy Telegraph.-Special Oorrcepondon',.) , . Wanganui, April 2:'. If certain negotiations now in progress mo successfully concluded (us they probably will J>d) flie Wanganui Museum will shortly bo in possession of a unique reliu of old New Zealand in tlio shape of a war canoe said to l>o (he best; model of suclu a craft existing in (lie Dominion. According to tradition the first notable .event in which it was engaged was tho bis battle of Ivapiti in 1525, when tho combined tribes tried to capture To Euuparnha, the famous /ishtiiiß chief who carried fire and massacre through tho central portions of New Zealand. Then it went back to the AVanganui Hirer and figured in many forays and fights on that historic stream, including the battle of Moutoa. In later years it was put to a prosaic, but moro useful, purpose as a, trading canoe, and lor the last couple of years it has been carefully laid up, its last owner refusing oilers from museums elsewhere.

The canoe, which measures Gflft. by Gift., is a. fine specimen of Maori "shipbuilding," and, with its sideboards, was hewn out of a single treo with stono axes. It bears tho seal's of mnnv battles, and more than one bullet is still embedded in its sides. The elaborately carved stern post .and figurehead which it used to boast arc gone, but, as th-j museum already possesses some specimens of these, the restoration of the old canoe will not be a difficult matter.